Dinesh and Bawa

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Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Navaratri according to an Ozzie

Ivan is an Art of Living teacher from London now staying in Sydney, Australia. He has an absolutely whacko sense of humour as you will see in the post below... i dug it up from my computer, i think he had written this about 2 years ago... He is an absolutely lovely person and a pleasure to know!



You can drop him some mail and tell him how you liked it... his email id is ivan@artofliving.org.au

I called the travel agent in Sydney, Australia from the Bangalore Ashram to put back my return flight for a week or so. The conversation went something like this...

Agent. "So you want to stay on, must be having a good time - where have you been?"

Me. "Eh, well... have you heard of Navaratri?"

Agent. "No, is it near Delhi?"

Me. "It's not a place, its a festival actually."

Agent. "OK, like a beer festival?"

Me. "Not really, in fact there was no alcohol."

Agent. "No alcohol! Well what kind of festival do you call that?"

Me. "Well it's a nine day celebration, expressing gratitude for Life and all its gifts."

Agent. "9 days without a drink and you call that a celebration - how did you celebrate then?"

Me, now wishing I'd never mentioned Navaratri, "Well.....most days you get up around 5.00 am, have a cold shower, make your way to a covered area where you sit on the ground for
five or six hours listening to chanting in a funny language, then go and queue for some food, no cutlery mind, help wash a few thousand dishes, pick up rubbish, lose your shoes, walk barefoot back to covered area, get soaked in a monsoon storm on the way, sit and watch people throwing
sticks and fruit and herbs and flowers and milk and honey into a big fire, and then on the last day we go pretty wild and the master of ceremonies drenches every one with water.

You should try it sometime. Oh, and by the way, God comes."

Very long pause.

Agent. "Well it sounds a bit different from the average package holiday we sell, I'll give you that. But these extreme holidays are getting more popular now, maybe this Travanatrina will catch on. Anyway, the next available flights back to Sydney are on 25th, is that OK?"

Me. "Thanks, I'll take them - that will give me time to recover."

I wished him peace, prosperity and happiness - he seemed pretty happy with that!

ps watch out for another of Ivan's gems next week!  

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22 comments:

Lavanya M M Ramaniah said...

:) :) :)

Trinaa said...

awesome.. :))..ivan's good but the travel agent's even better("No alcohol! Well what kind of festival do you call that?") ... does he have a blog??!!! ;)

Anand said...

The Description is so bland but sounds so hilarious!! heheheheeh.....

LOVE

longfellwojr said...

Dear Bau

Jai Gruduev

It was simply superb i had a riot of a laugh

Plz keep posting more such funny stuff too along with the regulars.Thank you so much

Anupam Gupta said...

hehe...nice one bau...will surely drop him a comment on this one...

ohh an di read Now What?...too good a book bau...seriously...

Unknown said...

hahaha...that was hilarious...i know Ivan personally...met him up in Sydney...he is ROCKSTAR! we had the best time ever! Rock on Ivan!

Love,
Rajan.

vishesh said...

that was a really classic one, bawa !!!! worth reading again and again .... !!!!

vishal said...

good one

Anonymous said...

dis ones toooooooooooooo gud bau...... will look fwd to more stories of ivan........!!!!!!

tushar said...

:-) :-)
what a hilarious discription of navaratri!!
can't stop laughing in the office when i read this.
plz keep posting this kind of humours.

lots of love and
lots of laugh
Jai Gurudev

Tushar

Suparna said...

I am positive I have read this before. Wasn't it published in the papers sometime back? anyways, enjoyed re-reading it :)

komal said...

Jai Gurudev Bawu..
whenever i think of sydney and leaving home, Guruji always takes care even tough am still here. thanks for this..... something of aol i can hang on to.. now am looking forward to going there.. the story was good i mean amazinnng.. the travel agent sounds hilarious....

Anonymous said...

read this before but LOL .

Jai Guru Dev ,

Manish Panchmatia said...

Hi Bawa

This post is inline with the name of the blog "Sounds Interesting..." :)

Manish
http://www.geocities.com/panchmatia_manish

Anonymous said...

JGD..
Hey, it was fun 2 read dis 1 :))

Anonymous said...

too goooood!!!!!!!!!!
very funny n nice description.
jgd

Anonymous said...

But these extreme holidays are getting more popular now, maybe this Travanatrina will catch on!!!-- I dont know about you-- it felt like a conversation between Prof.Calculus and Cap.Haddock

Anonymous said...

haha..must have really scared the agent :)

jgd

Monica said...

travel agent for AOL course ;D

Oishee said...

Yes, he is truly a lovely person. Hugging him is like hugging Santa Claus and watching him attempt bhangra is really fun!

Vinod Patil said...

Thats quite funny :) awesome. Travel agent learned a lot :)

In Search Of Myself said...

HAHAHA...awesum! Ivan writes like Robert Phulghum..Rock on Ivan...Does he has a Blog Bau?

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